Register with us to ensure you receive our future calendar and coordinate predictions for the region of your interest Click Here.

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Japan's earthquakes and tectonic setting

Japan has more measurable earthquakes than any other country and has
over 100 active volcanoes. These both result from Japan being wedged
among four major tectonic plates.

The tectonics are complicated, but in this animation, IRIS attempted
to look at the basic mechanics of the region as they focused on two
famous earthquakes: the 1995 Kobe (Great Hanshin) earthquake and the
2011 Tohoku-Oki earthquake. It is necessarily simplified to depict basic
processes.
Although there are many published fault-displacement models derived
from fitting different sets of observations (teleseismic waveforms,
tsunami heights, GPS displacements, seafloor deformation, etc.), there
is considerable disagreement between those fault-displacement models.
For a variety of reasons, the animation group decided to illustrate
the fault-displacement model of Jiang and Simons, 2016, Journal of
Geophysical research, 10.1002/2016JB013760.
Written & directed by Dr. Robert F. Butler, University of Portland
Animation & graphics by Jenda Johnson, Earth Sciences Animated
Narrated by Wendy Bohon, Informal Education Specialist, IRIS
Scientific review:
Dr. Hiroyuki Tsutsumi, Doshisha University (堤 浩之, 同志社大)
Dr. Chris Goldfinger, Oregon State University
Dr. Lori Dengler, Humboldt State University
Featured image credit: Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS)